Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Revisiting my Preseason Top 30...

My preseason top 30, comments in parathesis, the grade following my comments is the grade I feel he's earned this season

1. Fernando Martinez OF (performed very well in AAA, flashed signs in the majors, solid BB/K, line drive hitter, injured again, though) B

2. Wilmer Flores SS (After, I'll say it, a very subpar April (.296/.676) and May (.235/.600), Wilmer's turned it on in June (.309/.766) and July (.310/.741), hitting around .310 with solid K numbers (17 in 165 ABs) after 24 in 158 April+May ABs with a .260 average, needs to show some power (but the average is damn impressive) B+

3. Jon Niese LHSP (after a disasterous first half, Jon's pitching to a 0.96 era in his last 8 starts, the best stretch of his pro career) B-

4. Danirl Murphy 3B/2B/1B/LF (started the season in LF, looked lost, moved to 1b, looks great. The bat hasn't come around as we'd hoped, he looks lost and in between at the plate, but he's been jerked around by Jerry, so it's not totally Daniel's fault.) C-

5. Brad Holt RHSP (Outside of his season debut, Holt dominated high A and made it to AA in his first full season. Has performed respectably in AA, again, removing his worst start, reports on his secondaries have been good) B

6. Nick Evans LF/1B (Yeesh. Was demoted to EXT then AA after hitting .096 in AAA (yes, .096). Performed decently in the majors, and has been...better upon his return to AAA (.227/.261/.273/.534 (22 ABs)) D

8. Josh Thole C/1B (Thole keeps on doing what Thole does. High average, high on base, acceptable pop (22 2b). Reports of his defense improving enhance his stock, and it's more a matter of him being passed by higher ceiling prospects then slippage that he'll likely end the year outside of my top 10) B+

9. Jenrry Mejia RHSP (flat out dominated high A at 19, made it to AA, performance was more mixed, then got hurt. Has HUGE upside, jumped 6 spots in my midseason rankings) A

10. Jefry Marte 3B (has been flat out awful on both sides of the ball, is making a 2 level jump at 17/18, hitting MUCH better in July (.296/.350/.446/.796), still on pace for 50 errors (he's got 35)) C+

11. Bobby Parnell RHP (has spent the entire season in the majors, has been hit or miss, flashes a wickedly plus fastball (96-100), inconsistent secondaries (slider, changeup), could probably use time in the minors/winter league to refine his secondaries) C+

12. Scott Moviel RHSP (tore his knee meniscus twice, hasn't pitched well since returning, but it's only 4 starts in St. Lucie) INC

15. Ike Davis 1B (Davis is shutting me up something fierce, huh? I've made my disdain for Davis well known, and Davis is doing nothing but performing, with 12 HR and 23 2b split between high A and AA. He's only got a .563 OPS against LHP, so he needs to improve that markedly, but his 1.015 against RHP is extremely impressive) A

16. Francisco Pena C (Pena's made some strides this season (12/48 BB/K, vs a 25/95 last year, .190 K rate this year, vs .239 last year, there are some who would tell you the high contact rate points to an imminent breakout, I'm not sure, but then again, to be fair, I've never been a Pena fan, either, and his July (.905 OPS, best month of his pro career) certainly backs up the prediction of a breakout) C

17. Eddie Kunz RHRP (yeah, I ranked my 3 "disdains" in a row, lol. Kunz has been largely pedestrian in his first full season in AAA, posting a 4.08 era, and slipping 6 spots in my midseason rankings (to 23). Again, to be fair, Kunz' season is largely a product of 4-5 very ill-placed appearances where he's been bombed out of existance (3+ runs). And as we know, one appearance of 4 runs in an inning can KILL an ERA for weeks and months. Still, AAA lefties are hitting .267 with a .360 OBP, while righties are hitting just .176 against him) C-

18. Michael Antonini LHSP (we knew Owen would flame out in AA, I, personally, had some hope Antonini wouldn't go down the same path, but he has. His season tanked his ranking, he's in the mid 40s, easily the largest drop on my preseason list (except for Nathan Vineyard). Antonini's allowing AA lefties to hit .269 against him, while righties are hitting .308, so even a role as a LOOGY looks like a longshot at this point) F

19. Jeurys Familia RHSP (his stock has risen considerably this season, he's jumped up 10 spots from this ranking to 9th overall (though I may be tweaking that post 8/15). Still, Familia at age 19 is dominating the Sally League, with 1.47 GO/FO and 91 Ks in 106 innings. Familia is 55 innings above his career high, a cautionary note if his performance were to slip from here) A

20. Kyle Allen RHSP (Allen was only ranked here because I didn't have good information on him, the same reason he was 30th in my predraft top 50, right now, he would be in the top 15 for sure. Outside of an awful 7.5 era April, Allen's pitched to a 3 era this season, and had 72 Ks in 86 innings, with an extremely good 2.31 GO/FO) B

21. Ruben Tejada SS (Considering his age (19), and his putrid performance in high A last year (.229/.293/.296/.588) it would've been very easy to write off Tejada for 2009 as well, after learning he was going to open in Binghamton. Indeed, Tejada hit just .222/.347/.286 in April, but from 5/1 on, Tejada's been extremely impressive, hitting around .292/.341/.374 in 250 ABs.

22. Brant Rustich RHP (he was ranked here due to injury concerns, stayed healthy long enough (pitching 4-5 innings every outing) for me to rocket him up to 3rd, and then got hurt. He's still got the best stuff in the system, but injury concerns at UCLA dropped him into the 3rd round in 07, and injury concerns in the pros have limited him to just high A at age 24) B-

23. Nathan Vineyard LHSP (he retired rather then rehab) Grade: WUSS

24. Angel Calero LHSP (Calero's had a mixed season, suffering through a 5.68 era in May+June, but posting 1.23 in April and 3.86 in July around them, overall pitching to a 4.19 in 77.1 innings. Calero hasn't appeared in a game since the 9th of July, cause unknown) C+

25. Greg Veloz 2b (outside of a hot 2-3 weeks to start the season, Veloz has been flat out awful, with a .628 OPS. He has slightly improved his BB/K (.3451 last year, .3824 this), but overall, it's been a disappointing season for Veloz) C-

26. Lucas Duda 1b/OF (Duda's performed well in AA, considering his ... somewhat disappointing high A campaign in 2008 (.263/.358/.398/.755). He's cut down his Ks (.267 rate last year, .249 this), and significantly improved his BB/K (.5116 last year, .622 this). Significant platoon splits are holding him back, however (.487 OPS vs LHP, .904 vs RHP), but this has been a good step forward season for Duda) B-

27. Nick Carr RHSP (Carr rebounded from a nightmarish 2008, and was having a good 2009, but got hurt midway through) INC

28. Jose Coronado SS (awful season from Coronado, who some had thought made strides offensively with his great showing in the VWL, but he got off to a putrid start in AAA, and hasn't been much better in AA) D

29. Cesar Puello OF (performing very well in short season rookie ball at age 17) B+